CHENNAI: With Covid-19 cases surging, people are preferring the digital healthcare startups, to help them tide through other ailments. Last year, people were forced to shift to online consultation. Since then, the business of the e-healthcare companies has witnessed a boom. And now during the second wave too, the companies are witnessing a similar rise in business.
The e-healthcare companies have highlighted that as Tamil Nadu is one of the most IT literate states, they are witnessing a sizeable growth in customers from this State. According to leading digital healthcare platform, Practo, it saw 500% increase in consultations from Chennai in 2020, a significant increase from the previous year.
“Cities like Tiruchy, Madurai, Salem and Coimbatore also witnessed a growth of 400% in 2020 as online consultations started gaining acceptance from non-metro cities post Covid,” said a spokesperson of the company.
iCliniq, a Coimbatore-based telemedicine company, said last year it had registered a growth rate of 8x to 9x, however when cases went down the figures decreased. “However, after a brief lull, from April this year we are again registering a growth rate of 7.5x to 8x,” said Dhruv Suyamprakasam, founder of iCliniq.
Looking at the changing customer need and rising demand, the companies are also bringing in innovations to serve them better. Earlier this month Practo launched the online consultations, in 15 vernacular languages including Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Kannada and Bengali. This will allow online consultation users to choose a doctor who can speak in their preferred language.
“In March, we also launched online consultations for veterinary services by teaming with licensed veterinarians to offer 24X7 online consultation services for pets,” said spokesperson of the company. Similarly, iCliniq is adding more number of doctors for consultations and it will soon launch new services, said Dhruv.